


Death &  Chaos

by Random_Human, Rouko



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Loki - Fandom, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Art, Art looks so amazing!!, But cute!, Chaos, Digital Art, Enemies to Allies To Lovers, Fluff, FrostIron - Freeform, Frostiron Mini Bang 2019, Infinity Stones, M/M, Magic, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Non-Graphic Violence, Obligatory cake feeding scene, Pining, Post-Endgame, The Tesseract (Marvel), Watching Someone Sleep, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, kind of... Basically what happens after loki disappears with the tesseract?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:14:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21616672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Random_Human/pseuds/Random_Human, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rouko/pseuds/Rouko
Summary: One moment he is walking, keeping a careful hold of the cube that had wreaked havoc on their world, the next he is zoning back into a wash of noise. The fog in his brain quickly dispersed as he realised… Loki was gone. Loki was gone, and so was the tesseract.
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark
Comments: 2
Kudos: 93





	Death &  Chaos

**Author's Note:**

> Mini-bang fic with the wonderful **Rouko**! A big thank you to her as she became my pinch hitter with only a month left and helped me figure out a completely new idea. Plus her art looks so amazing!! Exactly what I imagined for this scene <3
> 
> Without further ado, hope you enjoy <3

It all starts as it will all end. With a stone. (Or a series of them, not that Tony is to know that.)

It happens like this. One moment he is walking, keeping a careful hold of the cube that had wreaked havoc on their world time and time over, eyes roaming the room, alert but tired as all the aches and pains of battle return and the adrenaline drains away. Then it struck. Pain, rushed through him in a sudden jolt, stopping him in place. He couldn’t breathe. His heart stuttered in his chest as the Arc reactor blinked and died. He couldn’t feel his body as it slipped out of his control. 

He zoned back in, to a wash of noise, ears hypersensitive and body reeling from the sudden shock. Shaky, he tried his best to push the panic out of his mind. Glancing around the room to assess the situation, the fog in his brain quickly dispersing as he realised… Loki was gone. Loki was gone, and so was the Tesseract.

\-- _Death & Chaos_ \--

Tony was at his wit's end, he was stressed, overworked and underappreciated. The constant pressure from all sides; SHIELD and their intrusive demands, Bruce’s hesitant glances, Steve’s constant questions, Pepper’s increasing worry.

There had been over 2 months of ceaseless searching. Trying algorithm upon algorithm to find Loki, the wily bastard. The niggling feeling of wrongness that had pressed in his brain from the beginning of this operation had become full-fledged in its intensity. He _knew_ something had been off with the invasion. 

Loki, with all of his supposed power and intelligence, had chosen _New York_ of all places to open a _pitiful_ portal - much smaller than the potential offered by the device Selvig made - and drew so much attention to himself, all but begging to be stopped. At the time he wasn’t able to think it through, the rushed timeline and obvious ploy made sense when paired the knowledge Thor provided on the other god, but Tony was coming to understand that too, to be as useful as fighting against the Norns themselves - which is to say pretty damn useless if Tony’s research was correct. 

That, combined with the difficulties in finding the cube - considering it took he and Bruce nary a few hours of work to track him down originally, compared to the many weeks of nothing they were experiencing now, no sightings, no alarms raised, and no ping’s on any of their many, _many_ devices - raised quite a few questions regarding Loki’s motivations. 

It had all come to a head when Thor’s offhand comment clicked in his brain, “.. his magic as virulently green as his eyes,” or some such. He lost focus of the conversation from that point, brain furiously focusing on this new revelation. Loki’s _eyes_. Eyes that had once been as brilliantly blue as the Tesseract, that had - upon further study of the tower’s recordings - transformed into a startling shade of green upon the Hulk’s assault of his body… Cognitive recalibration and all that.

Adding to this was knowledge that he kept close to his chest, of the second Tony, something that JARVIS had discovered only after combing through the footage of Loki’s escape. The person who had made it all possible. There were a number of ways to explain it away, after all, magic was something he had little knowledge of, and could easily have caused any number of hijinks. Except… 

Except that Tony had also found footage of the second Cap, the one that so baffled SHIELD, and another Hulk of all people, along with a fourth unknown, gathered together both before and after the chaos. Appearing in a flash and disappearing shortly after. His brain had flown through many possibilities, but those that stood out the most were either dimension or time travel, two things he previously thought were impossible.

So where did it leave Tony? Hungry for answers. Just what was Loki’s game? What was he doing with the cube? And why did an apparent alternate Tony want him to receive it? 

\-- _Chaos & Death_ \--

Loki contemplated the Tesseract, eyes assessing the bright light as his mind worked to uncover its secrets. Months of hiding, of stockpiling his power and assets, of preparing for a war that would be years in the making. 

He had done all he could alone. Maybe it was time to find some allies. Or at least some useful pawns. Hiding was beginning to tire him. Focusing, he carefully changed some of the spells that shielded him. The Tesseract would still be hidden from the eyes of _him_ and any other cosmic entities that would try to find it - Heimdall included, - but that fascinating little Midgardian… he could prove useful.

\-- _Death & Chaos_ \--

At this point, everyone else had all but given up. Tony too was losing hope of finding the crafty mage. He kept the algorithms cycling in the background as he worked on his suit aiming, as always, for constant improvement. Letting out a sharp curse as his work with the repulsor’s delicate wiring was halted with a jarring screech. 

The high-pitched alarm sounded through the workshop as JARVIS’s dulcet tones rang out, “ Sir, the Tesseract has been located. Would you like me to notify SHIELD of this development??”

Tony contemplated everything he had learned over the past few months, in the year that Loki had been missing much more had come to light about his past and the events that led him to earth. He knew what he thought on the issue, and how both SHIELD’s ideologies and methods... differed from his own.

“Hold that thought JARVIS, I think it’s time for some answers. Prepare Mark IX. We have a God to see.”

\-- _Death & Chaos_ \--

“Okay, so what you’re trying to tell me is that a giant purple grape of death is coming to destroy us in what, four, five years time?”

The only noise in the cluttered room was Loki’s sigh of exasperation. They had been at this for hours with little end in sight. Tony’s mind was awash with wave after wave of incredulity and shock. 

Stones. The universe was built by a grand total of 6 so-called ‘ _infinity stones_ ’. Forget theories of a big bang, physics and the very basis of science as he knew it. Yes, he had known the Tesseract to be important, but not that it was integral to the very shape of the universe as he knew it. Magic had already shaken that up enough, but now this. Tony couldn’t even begin to consider the implications of this knowledge on the scientific community. How this would -

“If you are going to waste my time by staring into the air you best stop wasting my time and leave mortal.” The mage snapped out, at wit's end with the inventor… ‘ _and I had such high hopes for this partnership._ ’ 

Loki’s musings were quietly squashed as Tony sprung up, “Hey you wait here Reindeer Games, I’m not going to just scurry back to my lab. I have been searching for you for almost a year and now that I finally found you I’m not giving up until I understand everything that’s going on.”

“Ha,” Loki cut in, “You believe a quivering mortal such as yourself could find me if I did not allow it?”

Tony was briefly distracted by the way the light caught on Loki’s eyes as they flashed with anger, but swiftly felt fury of his own as he caught processed what had been said.

“You-!”

\-- _Death & Chaos_ \--

Tony was not expecting it to turn out this way. When he had accepted Loki’s proposal for a partnership - after not one, but a series of long and drawn out conversations, if one could call what was basically yelling at each other for the better part of hours at a time, a conversation - he believed it would be a business transaction, the same as the many countless contracts he had made in his life. I help you, you help me, mutual benefit but with the added caveat of mutually assured self-destruction if their actions were to come to light - to any of the concerned parties. He had expected their contact to be sparse, messages relayed as they both worked on their separate projects.

To be fair, in the beginning it was just that. Tony had been filled in on the situation, fighting Loki for the right to _all_ knowledge on the allotted topics, as opposed to just what Loki considered important for him to know. It had cost him, when bartering for the overall agreement, but was worth it for the information he gained. Then, they had gone their separate ways. Loki off to explore his options among the realms content with the knowledge that he had an ally on earth for the time being. 

Tony had received sparse communication, letters that appeared in the air before him before going up in a shower of flames once read. Intriguing, effective, but so damn annoying - those sparks had caused dummy to unleash the fire extinguisher at Tony on more than one occasion. 

But it had all changed when Tony had made his way down to the lab, rubbing the sleep from his eyes only to find Loki curled up on the tattered couch in his workshop, blankets beneath him stained with blood. Tony had done what every sensible person would do when confronted with the image of their tentative ally seemingly bleeding out in front of them - he panicked. He shouted Loki’s name several times but the man was insensate, eyes glazed and focused on something Tony could not see. It was not until Tony made a move to touch the mage that Loki snapped out of his stupor, eyes alert and body tense as he sprung up only to crumple on the ground before Tony.

“Loki-” Tony shouted in alarm, “Here, let me help you.”

He stepped forward but was rapidly halted as the mage hissed out, “I am fine.”

“Loki, you are definitely not fine. I have seen neglected pot plants more ‘fine’ than you - and that’s something considering the state of my penthouse - you need help.” Tony’s snarky exterior was back up and running as the shock slowly settled.

“I do not need help from _you_.” Loki all but growled

Tony stepped closer, “Then why did you end up here, bleeding out on my couch? And now my floor?”

“I had an… altercation, with a fellow magic-user. They traced me back to my lodgings and were clearly not pleased with what they found, th-”

Tony lost focus of the mage’s words as he noted that the puddle around Loki’s body was growing alarmingly large, “Okay, Loki stop. I get it. You can explain it later, but right now you need help.”

Loki’s attempted glare did little to stop the mortal as he inched closer, “I am going to pick you up and put you back on the couch, you are not going to resist.”

Loki was obviously not pleased with the situation but bore it with a grace that shocked the inventor after the fuss he had raised. Tony assessed him, “Okay, first we need to get that thing off.”

“Oh, eager to take my clothes off are you Stark?” Loki smirked despite his wan pallor

“You wish Rudolph,” Tony muttered on autopilot as he started on the complicated array of buckles, fingers working quickly to divest Loki of first his leather tunic, then his undershirt - that was so sodden with blood he had to cut it off rather than attempt to pull it over the mage’s head. 

Tony zoned out, Loki’s harsh breathing fading into the background as the scent of coppery blood faded. He had fixed his own injuries and was well practice, initially from years of solo lab work and later those resulting from activities in the Ironman suit. He couldn’t do much about the broken ribs that Loki clearly had, but it didn’t sound like the mage was breathing in any blood, and the puncture wound to his abdomen was quickly bandaged to stop the blood flow. Tony figured that if Loki’s healing was anything like Thor’s, he had little to worry about. 

When he focused again on the mage it was to note that he had passed out during some part of the process, Tony sighed, “I guess it’s for the best.” As he hefted the dark-haired man into his arms.

Tony did not see or hear from Loki for over a week. Although he had placed him in a room on his own floor, the mage had shored himself up while he recuperated and did not reappear until he appeared to be fully healed. 

From then on, however, things had changed. Loki had taken it upon himself to move into the tower, claiming the spare room in the penthouse as his and slowly taking over a bench in Tony’s lab for his various magical pursuits. Things between the two of them had changed too. Loki was still the same stubborn bastard, with snark and whit to match Tony on his best - and worst - days. But something about their interactions had softened, the veneer of distrust that Loki held about him had been shifted away, and with such close interaction came new realisations.

Loki and Tony had something that was almost like... a friendship. They were both sarcastic irritable bastards at the best of times, but working together in a closer proximity had opened them both up to sides of each other they weren't expecting to see.

For one, Loki had taken to the bots with admirable aplomb. He always greeted them when he stepped into the lab and took time to play with them when they, Dum-E in particular, got too restless. He seemed to understand their sharp whistles and noises almost as well as Tony did at this point. For Tony this was a first, apart from Rhodey - who had been with him when he built Dum-E - no one else, not even Pepper, had treated them as well as Loki did.

And that was just the tip of the iceberg. Tony quickly grew to admire Loki’s swift mind and thought patterns, his fascinated with the Mage’s abilities quickly growing into deep-rooted respect.

Where once they were strangers with an aligned goal, now they were friends, able and willing to rely on each other. 

And for Tony as least, there was something else coming into play. He had always found Loki attractive in an abstract way, but more often over time caught himself staring at the angle of Loki’s jaw, the look of intense focus on his face as he worked with delicate magic, the way he all but hummed with power at times. Not only that, but he had started to feel the _mushy_ things too. He wanted to step close to the mage, to hold those wondrous hands in his and just experience being close to him. He wanted more of the quiet time they got so little of - between their work against the Thanos, Tony’s commitments to Stark Industries and their continued dodging of the rest of the Avengers, they had little quiet time to appreciate each other’s company. 

But enough of that, Tony had enough to worry about without adding an ill-conceived relationship to the mix. Anyways, he was the self-proclaimed _Merchant of Death_ what would he know about love?

\-- _Chaos & Death_ \--

Loki was not sure just what was going on between himself and the mortal. What had started as a simple business arrangement had spiralled rapidly out of control, into something entirely unrecognizable. But, Loki couldn’t say that he… minded, these changes per-say.

He had come to admire the mortal throughout the time they had spent together. Initially, he was intrigued by the inventor’s actions, what had led such a dark figure into such a bright position? But he had soon come to see the true worth of his apparent friend. Just how _sharp_ his mind was as he quickly grasped knowledge that Loki had seen fellow mages take years to understand. How his brain snapped from idea to idea, creating beautifully chaotic connections that lead to intriguing solutions. How his fingers were always twitching with the need to invent, to create and build.

But now those fingers were slack as the hero was slumped over his desk, sleeping off his most recent inventing binge. There were still dark shadows under his eyes. He had grease spots splattered across his face and his hair was oily, unwashed for days at this point. But still, Loki felt his eyes soften as they studied the other man. How his broad shoulders hunched over to make him look so small, his face slackened with sleep into an expression of contentment Loki had rarely seen. 

Loki was not sure what was going on between himself and the mortal, but he was the incarnation of Chaos. He destroyed everything he put his hands on, so he would not make the mistake of putting them on Tony.

\-- _Death & Chaos_ \--

This is a mistake. Tony knew it. Could see the wreckage waiting to happen even as he continued along the tracks. It started, as things always do between them, with an offhand comment, and had somehow fallen completely out of his control with alarming aplomb. 

So here he was, poised to feed Loki a cake of his own making - a decadent triple choc monstrosity, aiming to fulfil Loki’s insatiable love of the substance. Just _how_ he ended up here he couldn’t tell you, but as the teaspoon moved closer to the mage’s awaiting mouth he could do nothing to stop the inevitable.

Loki’s eyes slid closed letting out a pleased hum, it slowly turning into a moan of pleasure as he sampled the cake Tony had slaved over. A rare expression of gratification filled his face as Tony moved on autopilot to feed him the next spoonful. This continued until the slice was decimated, a few sparse crumbs remaining in its place. Throughout the whole experience neither had spoken a word, as Tony stared enraptured at the man before him. It was not until Loki’s eyes focused back on him that he had realised the full extent of his mistake. 

“That was simply marvellous Tony.” Loki purred out, soft and contented as a cat that caught the canary and ate it too.

Tony could do little more than continue to stare, dazed by the events of the last few minutes as his brain struggled to reboot.

It took some time but he managed to push out, “Glad you enjoyed.” Wincing as his attempt at casual nonchalance turned into something akin to an embarrassingly emotionally filled statement.

Oh, he just knew that this was going to be a mistake. But at the same time, he felt that to not continue would be an even bigger one. This would further transform their already murky boundaries and could be either the thing that made or broke their friendship. Tony was putting it all on the line in the desperate hope that his feelings were reciprocated, that he wasn’t reading more into something that clearly wasn’t there in the first place. 

He did it, he took that leap. What felt like an insurmountable obstacle passed in a matter of moments and his lips were pressed against Loki’s. He felt the other jolt against him, Loki going rigid as Tony prepared to pull away, but at the last moment, he all but melted, falling forward into Tony as he sighed into the kiss. 

They remained close together, trading soft kisses and breaths for what seemed like an indefinite period, trapped together in a bubble as they found what they had been searching for for so long. 

It took an age for them to pull away, to look into one another's eyes as the realisation of what they had just done settled into them. Tony thought he would be panicking at this moment, but all he felt was a filling sense of rightness... Maybe this was a trainwreck waiting to happen, but both of them had come back from so much worse. 

He reached out to hold Loki’s take in his, holding it to his lips as he kept his eyes on the mage, filling his gaze with the emotions that built in him until they were fit to burst.

“Loki.” He said in a hushed voice, 

“Tony.” The other replied, a whisper barely audible over the thud of Tony’s heartbeat in his chest.

After a breath Tony spoke again, “Is this okay?”

Any remaining stiffness melted out of Loki as he brings his forehead to rest against the inventors, hands trapped together between their chests.

“More than.” 

With that he pushed forward, initiating his own kiss. Time fell away from the pair again as they were lost in a haze of _each other_.

\-- _In the end_ \--

It will all end as it all started. With a series of stones and a series of battles fought out bitterly, bravely until the very end. It is well known that chaos and death are sides of the same coin, one always leading to the other, back and forth in a never-ending cycle. But what happens when chaos and death work together for a change…?

A soft kiss on the lips, hands clenched together in a never-ending promise, eyes bright with love and madness. Well, they’ll just have to wait and see.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I've really wanted to write a 'what happens when Loki takes the cube?' fic for a while now and am surprisingly pleased with the end result.
> 
> There will also be _more art_ available in the future so stay tuned!


End file.
